Sapphire HD7750 Ultimate Edition Review

When AMD launched the HD7750 and HD7770 I have to admit I felt slightly disappointed. When compared to the last generation HD6770 and HD6790 the new hardware seemed more of a sideways step, than a forward leap. Notably, AMD improved power consumption and subsequent heat radiation, but as a viable upgrade scenario for a current HD67xx owner they made little sense.

The problems are primarily based around AMD's decision to reduce the shader processor count from 800 on the HD67xx to 640 on the HD7770 and 512 on the HD7750. It doesn't matter how high you clock the hardware on a new manufacturing process, with less processing potential the hardware will never reach the full potential. The HD7750 is generally faster than the HD6770 but it could have been even better if AMD hadn't amputated the limbs.

Sapphire face an onerous inception with this latest HD7750 Ultimate Edition solution, however for the most part they have succeeded in regards to the overall design. They can't magically fix all of AMD's problems, however the removal of the reference cooler and fan is an accomplished move. Not only is the Sapphire Ultimate Edition completely silent, but it runs slightly cooler than the reference card and consumes less power.

The combination of silence, lower power draw and reduced temperatures are three integral buying considerations for a potential high definition media center customer. In this regard the HD7750 Ultimate Edition is a complete success.

Sapphire have tweaked the board design, replaced the cooler and removed the fan while ensuring that the core is copiously cooled. We would expect a noticeable rise in temperature with a passive design, but the heatsink has been carefully designed by the engineers to move as much heat to the peripheries of the aluminum fins, as quickly as possible.

As a gaming card, the HD7750 has limitations. It won't handle a taxing Direct X 11 gaming engine at 1080p without noticeable reductions in image quality. That said, Tom Clancy HAWX 2, Far Cry 2 and Resident Evil 5 were all perfectly playable at 1080p with high image quality settings. We would assume that most media center owners would be happy with this, especially in a potentially silent environment.

We haven't received confirmed pricing as we go to press, but the previous HD6570 Ultimate Edition is on sale for £65 inc vat, The HD6670 Ultimate Edition costs £72 inc vat. A standard Sapphire HD7750 is £86 inc vat.

Analysing the pricing information we would make a best guess that the Sapphire HD7750 Ultimate Edition will demand a small price premium over the actively cooled HD7750 and cost around £95.

If you are building a new, minimal noise, low cost media center and want to play games at modest settings this should be right at the top of your list.

Pros:

• Silent.
• Great design.
• Maintains very impressive thermal performance.
• Good bundle.

Cons:

• Case airflow is a must.
• HD7750 isn't a huge leap forward for AMD.

Kitguru says: Sapphire have turned a rather dull card into something worthwhile. It is silent and consumes less power than the reference solution. Not an easy achievement.

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